Rep. Jayapal Reveals Biden Committed to Fighting to Raise Minimum Wage in Private Call

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)—chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus — revealed on The Dean Obeidallah Show that President Joe Biden committed to fighting to raise the minimum wage in a private call.

During the interview, host Dean Obeidallah noted that the representative has been at the forefront of the fight to raise the minimum wage, adding that she continues to fight despite the fact that the parliamentarian in the Senate ruled against it.

“You’re still fighting, fighting. Fighting,” he added. “What can you tell people listening–and it’s not just progressives, again polling shows a solid majority of Americans say it’s time for the minimum wage to go up. What could be done next? I know you got the filibuster don’t get me wrong we understand that.”

Jayapal pointed to the fact that she represents Seattle, the first major American city to pass a $15 minimum wage in 2014, agreeing that it is an incredibly popular bill.

“Look at Florida that passed a $15 minimum wage based in, which is what this is, this is phased in over four years, by the way, it is not 15 tomorrow, which is what you and I would like, but it is over four years and then indexed so that it continues to increase every year to median wage after that.”

The represented went on to say that supporters of the bill will continue to push for it, as people will stop trusting Congress if they fail to deliver.

“There’s no procedural excuse that we can take back to people and say oh I’m sorry,” Jayapal added.

“I will just say one hopeful thing the President called me today to thank me for the work on the [Covid] bill and we talked about a $15 minimum wage and he again re-committed to me how committed he is to getting this done and getting it done quickly and getting a $15 minimum wage passed,” she revealed. “And I believe him, Dean, and so we’re just going to have to go back at this and I think that we’re going to have some disappointments on bills that aren’t going to pass the Senate and then I think that is going to give us the opening to reform the filibuster.”

Listen above, via The Dean Obeidallah Show.